Do You Find Variable 3-5mph Wind Difficult?

Thanks for the comments. It is good to know that my buddy and I are not the only ones that struggle in this situation. It has taught me a lot about being a better observer of the conditions. It also makes it seem easy when I go home to Oklahoma and shoot with the family!

I feel your pain......we hang strings of ribbons on our target stands and this past weekend we had the 600 yd ribbon to the 3 oclock position and the 800 yd at the 9....go figure complete 180 of the slight wind in only 200 yds. Give me a steady breeze any day of the week

No kidding. The only chance I had available to hunt last year was the Thanksgiving week. Two teen hunters linked up with me for a few days SE of Ulm. The slowest wind speed I recorded was 18 MPH with the average around 30 going up close to 60. Miserable, purely miserable. Must have passed on 50 deer before finding the right conditions, or more to say favorable conditions, for them to make a shot. Two shots with two deer right around the 600 mark. I ended up shooting mine well under 200 yards due to the winds.

Welcome to Central Montana. After last season, I went looking for the baddest ballistics wind bucker out there hoping to increase my ranges if needed in terrible wind conditions, or even in great conditions, and found APS. Should have a couple of my best performing guns complete by the 13 hunting season.

Did I say I hate the Central Montana winds, but what great practice if not unproductive.

You might be surprised at the difficulty of these "easy/calm" conditions. My 260 shooting 142 SMKs is a fairly efficient round at bucking the wind. At a measly 680 yards, wind drift for a full value 5mph wind is 14 inches. This means you have to hold 6.5 inches off the 15 inch wide target to get a center hit. What happens when the wind changes direction 180 degrees and of similar 5mph speed? You just missed the target by 20 inches. Of course it gets much worse as you move out further.

My buddy is a good shooter and he has even better ballistics with his gun. He shoots a 7mm Rem Mag pushing Berger 168 VLDs at 2950fps. He shot better in the gusting 30+ mph winds than he did in the, "simple for a Montanan", 3-5mph winds.

I will gladly invite you to educate us anytime on these variable, 3-5mph winds in mountainous terrain.

You might be surprised at the difficulty of these "easy/calm" conditions. My 260 shooting 142 SMKs is a fairly efficient round at bucking the wind. At a measly 680 yards, wind drift for a full value 5mph wind is 14 inches. This means you have to hold 6.5 inches off the 15 inch wide target to get a center hit. What happens when the wind changes direction 180 degrees and of similar 5mph speed? You just missed the target by 20 inches. Of course it gets much worse as you move out further.

My buddy is a good shooter and he has even better ballistics with his gun. He shoots a 7mm Rem Mag pushing Berger 168 VLDs at 2950fps. He shot better in the gusting 30+ mph winds than he did in the, "simple for a Montanan", 3-5mph winds.

I will gladly invite you to educate us anytime on these variable, 3-5mph winds in mountainous terrain.

I will gladly invite you to educate us anytime on these variable, 3-5mph winds in mountainous terrain.

There is a large difference between shooting targets and shooting animals. You don't seem to know the difference. A 3-5MPH wind is an easy shot on a animal at beyond 1000 yards whereas a 30 mph wind is only a fool's choice to even shoot beyond 500 yards.